Voters in four states on Tuesday weighed in on their parties’ presidential nominees, a largely symbolic vote now that US President Joe Biden and former US president Donald Trump have locked up the Democratic and Republican nominations.
Biden and Trump easily won primaries in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Wisconsin, adding to their delegate hauls for their party conventions this summer.
Their victories, while hardly surprising, nevertheless offer clues about enthusiasm among base voters for the upcoming 2020 rematch that has left a majority of Americans underwhelmed.
Photo: Bloomberg
Biden has faced opposition from activists encouraging Democrats to vote against him to send a message of disapproval for his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas, and some Republican Trump critics are still voting for rivals who have dropped out.
“Uncommitted” in Rhode Island and Connecticut was getting a similar share of the Democratic vote as protest campaigns in Minnesota and Michigan, which got 19 percent and 13 percent respectively.
In Wisconsin, “uninstructed delegation” was getting a smaller share.
In particular, the tallies in Wisconsin, a pivotal November battleground, will give hints about the share of Republicans who still are not on board with Trump and how many Democrats are disillusioned with Biden.
‘BLOODBATH’
Trump campaigned in Wisconsin and Michigan, two Midwest battlegrounds, doubling down on his heavily criticized warning of a coming American “bloodbath” as he told supporters US communities faced “plunder, rape and slaughter” at the hands of illegal immigrants.
In some of his most inflammatory comments to date on border security, Trump accused Biden of unleashing “carnage, chaos and killing” in a country he said was flooded with drugs and besieged by foreign criminal gangs.
“I stand before you today to declare that Joe Biden’s border bloodbath... It’s a bloodbath, and it’s destroying our country and it’s a very bad thing happening,” he said in an apocalyptic campaign speech in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “It’s going to end on the day that I take office.”
The former president spoke out as the Republican National Committee launched BidenBloodbath.com, a website warning of an “invasion aided and abetted by Joe Biden.”
Hours after Grand Rapids, he repeated his fierce messaging at a rally in Wisconsin, where he savaged Biden for allowing what Trump called “an invasion of our country.”
“We will liberate this nation from crooked Joe and his migrant armies of dangerous criminals once and for all,” he told supporters holding “Fire Biden” signs in Green Bay.
Biden’s campaign and Democrats accused him of fomenting “political violence,” prompting an indignant response from Trump aides who said it was clear the tycoon was using the term to describe economic devastation.
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